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‘Albums’ Category

  1. Another Voyage Review

    January 25, 2009 by J-Man

    Do you miss the Blink 182 glory days? Do you listen to “Take This To Your Grave” more often than “Folie à Deux”. Do you wish you had a shirt with a Cycloptopus on it?

    If you answered yes to any of these questions, than you might already be a fan of Another Voyage, a four piece pop rock band out of Easton, PA. These kids are out to have fun, and make sure everyone listening to them does too. Their music makes you want to dance with your friends, bob your head and sing along, and possibly experience a montage sequence of all the best things that happened to you in high school.

    Started back in 2007, Another Voyage is in a constant and steady state of growth. They just recorded there first demo CD last year, and have already opened for bands like Just Surrender, Sound The Alarm, Farewell, Patent Pending, and the Dangerous Summer. With the new year ahead of them, they’re looking forward to recording new material, playing as many shows as possible, and having good times worth writing songs about. Look forward to many good things from Eric, Todd, Anthony and Paul.

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  2. Fall Out Boy’s new album Folie á Deux

    December 13, 2008 by Steph

    Folie á Deux came in a big box to my door yesterday and I’ve been listening to it non-stop trying to decide what I think.  My expectations were low and I had even decided I was dead-set against one of the already-released songs.  Whether you’re a long-time fan, a used-to-be fan, or have never been a fan at all, I hope this makes sense to you.

    If you’re anything like me, you were crossing your fingers for Fall Out Boy’s new album Folie á Deux to be at least a little bit more Take-This-to-Your-Grave than Infinity on High.  Not to degrade Infinity on High, because I think it has it’s own value and has grown on me over the last two years, but I miss the quartet’s pop-punk roots.  Well, if pop-punk is what you’re looking for, this is not your album.  And we are only shown time and time again that music can only progress, not regress for these guys.  It makes perfect sense that the boys have chosen to migrate into new genres and experiment with new sounds.  So lets for a minute pretend that we’ve never heard the epic-ness that is Take This To Your Grave and look at the album for what it is on it’s own.


    It sounds like dance rock with eighties pop rock and blues influence and dashes of Hot Fuss and Pretty. Odd.  Even saying this, I think it’s nearly impossible to genre-ize this album except to say it’s Fall Out Boys invented brand of pop rock.  The album opens with Patrick’s smooth vocals with a church-organ-like melody of the synth on “Disloyal Order Of Water Buffaloes.”  They progress into guitar melody and drop the famous echoing bass drum beat and move the song into verse, bridge, and chorus of

    “Boycott love. Detox to just to re-tox.

    And I promise you anything but

    Another shot at life and

    Perfect boys with their perfect lies.

    No one here wants to hear you sing about tragedy.”

    This song reminds me of Infinity On High’s b-side “G.I.N.A.S.F.S.” which may be why it’s my favorite song on the album.  It sets the tone for the album as well—big beats, Patrick’s always pitch-perfect sweet vocals, and cold lyrics.

    The album moves into the single “I Don’t Care” (which most definitely gets my vote for best music video of 2008).  It’s very 80s rock, littered with “oh!”s, a jazzy interlude and electronic harmonic wanderings.  “She’s My Winona” has a crisp drum intro and a catchier chorus than the freecreditreport.com commercial jingles.  “Amercia’s Sweethearts,” a track previewed on their mixtape released this October, tells the story of young Hollywood.  Pete and Ashlee, maybe?

    Other standouts include the ballad “What a Catch, Donnie” which closes with  Elvis Costello singing part of the melody and a handful of guest artists singing lyrics to Fall Out Boy singles.  “Tiffany Blews” and “w.a.m.s.” open like hip hop tracks and continue on as an interesting brand of dance rock.  “20 Dollar Nose Bleed” pays homage to big band along with Panic at the Disco with a catchy beat and horns.  They end the track with a disturbing monologue from Pete, in the mold of “Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying” of From Under the Cork Tree.

    The album closes with “West Coast Smoker” reportedly named after their tour manager in a throw-your-hands-up-and-sing-along rock track with a dance beat, , screaming, and shouts of “Oh hell yes!”

    On it’s own, this album brings the energy, the creativity, and the passion that I would expect from anything Fall Out Boy.  Always true to their dark and cold lyrics, Folie á Deux is much less self-reflective and self-deprecating than previous Fall Out Boy releases, it seems.  From this album, you can expect something dancier and poppier than ever before.  Some of you will love it.  Some of you will despise it.  Some of you have already made up your decision before the record is even released.  Here’s the deal:  If you’re a fan, you probably still will be.  If you’re not, you definitely won’t be swayed to their side.  Personally, I’d say it ties for third with Infinity on High in the ranking of the guys’ albums, but then again, somehow each album seems to grow on me.  Give it a shot. You may be pleasantly surprised.

    Happy holidays to you all and lovely listening.

    Steph@A2S

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  3. Best Albums of 2008

    December 12, 2008 by Steph

    Okay, so we all have different tastes in music and there was NO WAY I thought we could come together to make a complete list for you.  Instead, I decided that each of us should make a list for you of our top five albums of 2008.

    Apparently our tastes converged because we have a few in common.  Our collective favorites were:

    Jack’s Mannequin’s The Glass Passenger

    Fall Out Boy’s Folie a Deux

    Forever the Sickest Kids’ Underdog Alma Mater

    And here are our top picks:

    Kristyn (writer):

    1. Fall Out Boy’s Folie a Deux
    2. Valencia’s We All Need A Reason To Believe
    3. Jack’s Mannequin’s The Glass Passenger
    4. John Mayer Trio’s Where The Light Is (Live)
    5. James Morrison’s Songs For You, Truths For Me

    Aimee (photographer):

    1. The Matches’ A Band in Hope
    2. The Cab’s Whisper War
    3. Jack’s Mannequin’s The Glass Passenger
    4. Sing It Loud’s Come Around
    5. Simple Plan’s Simple Plan

    Steph (writer):

    1. Panic at the Disco’s Pretty. Odd.
    2. Jack’s Mannequin’s The Glass Passanger
    3. Forever the Sickest Kids’ Underdog Alma Mater
    4. Ingrid Michaelson’s Be OK
    5. Joshua Radin’s Unclear Sky EP

    Catharine (photographer):

    1. Fall Out Boy – Folie A Deux
    2. Taylor Swift – Fearless
    3. Panic At The Disco – Pretty. Odd.
    4. Demi Lovato – Don’t Forget
    5. Metro Station – Metro Station

    Justin (writer):

    1. Disturbed – Indestructible
    2. Mindless Self Indulgence – If
    3. Kanye West – 808s and Heartache (having to put this on here makes me want to punch myself)
    4. Hollywood Undead – Swan Songs
    5. Flight of the Conchords – Flight of the Conchords

    Cassie (writer):

    1. Fall Out Boy – Folie a deux (even if just for the hype surrounding it)

    2. The Academy Is… – Fast Times at Barrington High

    3. ADELE – 19

    4. Charlotte Sometimes – Waves and the Both of Us

    5. Forever the Sickest Kids – Underdog Alma Mater


    Brianna (writer):

    1. Jason Mraz – We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things
    2. Gavin DeGraw – Gavin DeGraw
    3. Jack’s Mannequin – The Glass Passenger
    4. The Hush Sound – Goodbye Blues

    5. David Cook – David Cook & David Archuleta – David Archuleta

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  4. Shiny Toy Guns’ Season of Poison

    November 5, 2008 by Colleen

    Alternative rock band, Shiny Toy Guns, effectively combines softer ballads with sharper rock beats in their newest album, Season of Poison.  Each song showcases the range of vocals from co-lead vocalists, Gregori Chad Petree and Sisily Treasure, especially heard in “Ricochet!” which combines Treasure’s soft voice with Petree’s harder voice that could be compared to a metal singer.

    Season of Poison offers a broad arrange of styles including dance, rock, and electronic. The album’s style resembles Death Cab for Cutie in its opening song, “Money For That,” Postal Service in a personal favorite, “I Owe You a Love Song,” which has a great and intricate underlying techno beat on top of a rock sound, and U2’s “City of Blinding Lights,” emulated in “Turned to Real Life.”

    One of the most powerful songs on the album is “Poison,” an eight-minute track that sounds like something heard in a rock opera.  It’s fantastical style leads from soft vocals to rock, and ends with a funeral organ creating an eerie sound that makes you expect to see an array of flashing lights appear.

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  5. Emery’s EP While Broken Hearts Prevail

    October 28, 2008 by Brianna

    The guys from Emery are back today with their third album, the EP While Broken Hearts Prevail.  “The Smile, The Face” and “Edge of the World” open the album and give you a feel for what to expect.  While not far from The Weak’s End and The Question, their 2003 and 2005 releases, this EP definitely introduces some new elements for Emery.  “The Smile, The Face” is full of minor keys and haunting harmonies with intense screaming and a Nirvana-like hallow chorus.  “Edge of the World” starts off with the expected distorted guitar and screaming, but toward the middle of the song, breaks down first into almost a dance beat with the drums and then slows down into a snare beat coupled with quiet tenor vocals and more like yells than screaming.  “Do the Things (You Want),” the closing song on the EP, is a completely new formula for Emery, beginning with electronic elements, leading into acoustic guitar coupled with deep melodic vocals, is almost like H.I.M. in a major key.  Always the defeatists, they sing “Lets write the songs that we want.  I thought they’d love us but they don’t.”  I loved the emotion behind this song—it could move anyone listening to sympathize with them.

    My favorite off this EP would have to be the last song, “Do the things (you want)”. This song with its dark acoustic feel, I believe tells the tale of doubt and a betrayal—a very relatable idea. I think that this EP is definitely worth listening to.  If you listen and you like, more is hopefully to come with a full studio album in 2009.

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  6. War Stories’ Self-Titled Album

    October 14, 2008 by Steph

    War Stories released their self-titled album on August 19th and, after contemplating it for a while, I haven’t really come to any definite conclusions.  There are a couple of options here.  The first is that War Stories, members Evan, Reid, Eric, and Adam are trying to be innovative.  Sometimes trying something new isn’t always understood.  This is possible.  The alternative possibility is that this band wasn’t intending to try something new, but somehow missed the mark on doing what everyone else is doing.  The third and most likely option is that War Stories set out to try to do what everyone else is doing in a more innovative way and somehow their miss-mash of conventional and creative came out like bread without yeast—flat.

    War Stories performs simplistic guitar melodies reminiscent of eighties pop rock.  That’s nothing terrible.  What makes this band hard to tolerate and almost comical is the vocals.  The vocals drag through each song in a deep wandering melody.  Lead vocals Evan clings to each note as if he’s being dragged along the bass clef violently by the rest of his band mates.  The lyrics don’t help him out much.  The redundancy of the lyrics in each song makes you check your CD player to make sure it’s not skipping.  “Lion” repeats “lion” what seems like hundreds of times in a sagging, gargling voice.

    So here’s what I say to War Stories: thumbs up.  Nice try on a good effort.  But sorry, guys, no kudos.

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  7. The Friday Night Boys – That’s What She Said

    October 11, 2008 by J-Man

    I had never heard of The Friday Night Boys before being handed this album to review.  I walked into it with absolutely no expectations at all.  I didn’t even know what genre I was about to get in my ears.  Journey with me through “That’s What She Said,” TFNB’s new EP.

    Track 1 – Chasing A Rock Star

    We are greeted with a bouncy drum beat and a happy guitar intro.  Have we heard this song before?  Yes and no.  We have never heard this song in particular, but we have listened to Pop Punk before, so we have heard this intro before.  That’s ok though, you either like Pop Punk or you don’t (if you don’t, stop listening RIGHT NOW).  I do, so I listen on.  WHOA!  Shortest verse ever!  Twenty seconds into the song and we’ve already reached the chorus.  I’m bobbing my head, this music is super catchy, but these lyrics are inane.

    Chorus:

    “Chasing a rock star

    But where will you go?

    You’re chasing him too far

    The way you move so slow

    You swear you’re innocent

    But I know that you’ll regret

    Chasing a rock star now…

    Get over yourself”

    Ok, juvenile lyrics, super catchy music, song made up of mostly chorus.  I assume I’ll hear this on the radio tomorrow. Let’s see what else we’ve got.

    Track 2 – That’s What She Said

    Keyboard intro…  There is no keyboard in this band.  Drum machine drums…  Doesn’t this band have a drummer?   This makes me frown.  There’s a serious trend nowadays of over-produced music (too many vocal effects, hyper-sampled everything, instruments showing up on CDs that are non existent on stage).  It makes for great sounding CD’s, but it’s a pet peeve of mine.  I like listening to an album and knowing that this band can deliver the same sound live.  Anyway… moving on.  My brain goes into full “Pop Punk” mode and I’m not even listening to the lyrics anymore.  What was that!?  I rewind the track back to 2:30 to confirm that, indeed, there was a guitar sweep in that transition.  It was brief, but it woke me back up.  It’s followed by what I believe might be the 15th chorus in the song and a fade out.

    Track 3 – Celebrity Life

    Oh!  The guitar is doing more things.  The lyrics haven’t gotten any more intelligent, but this yet another catchy bouncy song that has me bobbing my head.  The guitar fills throughout have me smiling.  !!!!!  GUITAR SOLO!  An awesome one!  Where did that come from?  Now I’m paying attention again.  Enough to catch the last chorus about the girl who would do anything to get famous… Whoops.

    Track 4 – High School

    This title worries me.  My brain is threatening to tune out the lyrics again.

    End of chorus:

    “I guess graduating changes nothing at all…”

    Brain turn off.

    Guitar solo.

    Brain turn on.

    I don’t know if maybe I just haven’t been paying attention in the past, but I am not used to shredding solos in my Pop Punk.  I think this may actually be evidence of Guitar Hero affecting the way our music is made.  That is genuinely awesome.  What’s he singing about?  Oh, life being just like high school.  Next track please.

    Track 5 – Thursday Night Pregame

    Backstreet boys vocal harmony intro.  I’m smiling again.  The drummer mixes it up some with his beat in this song.  Is that some double pedal work I hear?  Again, my heads bobbing and I have no idea what he’s singing about.  This song “whoas” to a close, and I’m done with my Friday Night Boys experience.

    Final thoughts?  I’m absolutely and completely torn.  On the one hand, I like them.  I’ll be putting them on my Zune and listening in the future.  On the other hand, when my friends make fun of me for listening to music aimed at 14 year old girls… I’m not going to be able to argue.  If you are looking for deep, meaningful lyrics; this album is not for you.  If you are a fan of sing-a-long choruses and catchy music, littered with some genuinely surprising guitar work, give The Friday Night Boys a moment of your time.

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  8. Plain White T’s Big Bad World

    October 10, 2008 by Colleen

    Plain White Ts’ most recent album, Big Bad World, is a big beautiful success. The album balances mellow songs such as “Rainy Day,” with more foot-tapping and head-nodding tunes that come with such songs as “That Girl,” a personal favorite.

    The album combines eclectic styles of music that keep your ears wanting more.  These styles include rock ballads heard in “Serious Mistake”, acoustics, resembling John Mayer heard in “1,2,3,4,” ragtime in  “I Really Want You,” which instantly grabs your attention with harmonica, and Latin beats, heard repeatedly throughout “Serious Mistake.”  The album showcases Plain White T’s ability to transform as this album emphasizes their innovation, more so than their previous album, Every Second Counts.  It introduces various styles, rather than relying on a constant collaboration of instruments to create fast-paced songs that lose uniqueness.

    The album goes in a different direction from the constant hyper energy of songs heard in Plain White T’s previous albums as it incorporates a more diverse array of styles. This album feeds off of the success of “Hey There Delilah” which balanced lyrics and instrumentals, exactly what Big Bad World does in addition to fusing different musical arrangements into each track.

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  9. The Years Gone By’s new album Forever Comes Too Soon

    September 21, 2008 by Kristyn

    The Years Gone By’s Forever Comes Too Soon

    Alright, so let me open up this review by saying that before this, I had never listened to this band. I had only read and heard about them in passing. So with a little excitement, I popped in Forever Comes Too Soon and hit play. The first track, “This Time, It’s Our Time,” hit me as everything you could describe as energetic pop punk. It reminds me of some mix of The Starting Line, Blink 182, and New Found Glory. To be honest, I got a little sidetracked listening to “Best of Me,” while comparing the sounds.

    The rest of the album follows generally along with my first impression: pop punk, energetic, something I want to tap my foot to. It reminds me of driving along the coast during the summer with my windows down. “What Happens in ___ Stays In __,” is a clever track with a catchy beat, great melodies, and a bridge that you just have to clap your hands to.

    The album takes a turn with the ballad “You Might As Well Be In Space.” The band trades in strong guitar riffs and poppy drum beats for a piano and a symbol. The lyrics seem a little cliché, “I’ll tear down the stars and I’ll give them to you / The night isn’t pretty as your eyes / But I guess it will have to do.” But I didn’t have to debate long whether this band had a future career in ballad writings, because the album picks right back up after that with, “Tear Down These Walls,” and “Stay Close,” and “The Real Thing,” which closes the album.

    All and all, I would classify this album as a very catchy, upbeat album from a pop punk band. The sound is cohesive, with the exception of “You Might As Well Be In Space,” and the rest of the track flow together to create an album with that “last summer after high school,” feeling. In my opinion, the album is definitely worth a listen to decide for yourself if it is your cup of tea.

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